Session-specific streaming content replacement

ABSTRACT

First streaming video content may be received from a provider. The provider may issue a request to replace part of the first streaming video content with replacement content, such as advertisements. Second streaming video content may be selected as a replacement for a first video player, while third streaming video content may be selected as a replacement for a second video player. Instructions may be sent to the first and the second video player to play a first portion of the first streaming video content, followed by their respective selected replacement content, followed by a third portion of the first streaming video content, with the respective selected replacement content replacing a second portion of the first streaming video content. Replacement of the second portion of the first streaming video content may sometimes introduce latency, which may be reduced using various techniques.

BACKGROUND

The popularity of transmitting video content over computer networks,such as the Internet, has increased dramatically in recent years. Insome examples, video content may be provided using streamingtransmission techniques, in which portions of the video content may beplayed and displayed to a viewer while subsequent portions of the samevideo content are still being transmitted. In some cases, in a techniquecommonly referred to as live streaming, video of an event (e.g., a videogame, sports event, news event, etc.) may be transmitted and played asthe event occurs with only small amounts of latency relative to itscapture, such that at least a portion of the video content is playedprior to completion of the event. In some examples, in combination withcertain live or other streamed content, it may be desirable to providecertain additional content, such as advertising, notifications, andother additional content.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The following detailed description may be better understood when read inconjunction with the appended drawings. For the purposes ofillustration, there are shown in the drawings example embodiments ofvarious aspects of the disclosure; however, the invention is not limitedto the specific methods and instrumentalities disclosed.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example session-specific streamingcontent replacement system that may be used in accordance with thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 2 is diagram illustrating an example session-specific playlistgeneration system that may be used in accordance with the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 3 is diagram illustrating example master and variant playlists thatmay be used in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating example intake, transcoding and storageof replacement video content that may be used in accordance with thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a diagram of primary video segments and replacement videosegments that may be used in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example timestamp adjustment thatmay be used in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example session-specific streamingcontent replacement process that may be used in accordance with thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example process for latencyreduction by way of segment dropping that may be used in accordance withthe present disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example process for latencyreduction by way of timestamp adjustment that may be used in accordancewith the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example system for transmitting andproviding data that may be used in accordance with the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example computing system that maybe used in accordance with the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Techniques for session-specific streaming content replacement aredescribed herein. In some examples, primary video content may betransmitted, using streaming transmission techniques, from a streamingservice to a plurality of different video players that may play theprimary video content for a plurality of different respective viewers.In some cases, the primary video content may correspond to an event,such as a video game, sporting event, news event, or other event. Insome examples, live streaming techniques may be employed, in which videoof an event is transmitted and played as the event occurs with onlysmall amounts of latency relative to its capture, such that at least aportion of the video content is played prior to completion of the event.In one specific example, video game content may be captured by aprovider and live streamed to the streaming service, which may, in-turn,live stream the video content to a plurality of viewers. Also, in onespecific example, the streaming service may be a video game streamingservice to which the viewers subscribe.

In some examples, a provider that provides the primary video content tothe streaming service may request that a particular portion of theprimary video content be replaced by other replacement content, such asadvertisements, notifications, and other replacement content. In somecases, as an incentive to request such replacement, the provider may becompensated, for example by the streaming service, for requesting (orotherwise allowing) portions of the primary video content to be replacedby advertising or other replacement content. In some examples, therequest may be issued by the provider as the video content is beingcaptured and provided to the streaming service and may indicate adesired duration for the replacement. As a result of the request, theprimary video content that is transmitted by the streaming service, tothe viewers, may be interrupted upon reaching the start of the portionindicated by the request. This indicated portion of the primary contentmay not be transmitted to the viewers and may instead be replaced withadvertising or other replacement content that is transmitted and playedto the viewers. Upon completion of playing of the replacement content,the streaming service may then switch back and return to transmitting asubsequent portion of the primary content.

In some examples, at least partially different replacement content maybe provided to various different video players. For example, in somecases, the replacement content may be session-specific content, such asmay be targeted to different characteristics of the different videoplayers. These different characteristics may include, for example, aversion of the video player, a platform on which the video playerexecutes, hardware and/or software characteristics associated with thevideo player, a region or other location associated with the videoplayer, characteristics of an associated viewer (e.g., vieweridentifier, viewer age, viewer gender, viewer profile, viewerpreferences, language information, etc.), and other characteristics.Additionally, in some examples, the replacement content may also beselected based on characteristics of the primary video content, such asa name or other identifiers of the content provider and/or channel onwhich the content is provided, a name, identifier and/or type of contentbeing provided (e.g., game, sporting event, news event, entertainmentevent, etc.), targeted age and/or maturity rating, violence rating,language, and other characteristics.

The primary content that is transmitted to viewers may be encoded by atranscoder that repeatedly generates master playlists for differentportions of the primary content. Each master playlist may be provided toa playlist service, which uses the master playlist to generate a variant(e.g., session-specific) playlist for transmission to each viewer'svideo player. In some examples, when the primary content is not beingreplaced, the variant playlists may be similar or identical to themaster playlist. However, when a portion of the primary content is beingreplaced, the variant playlists may differ both from the master playlistand potentially from one another. In particular, when a providerrequests replacement of a portion of primary content, a master playlistthat includes that portion may indicate one or more segments of theprimary video content for replacement. In some examples, when theplaylist service receives this master playlist, the playlist service mayrequest replacement content for each video player that is viewing theprimary content. Specifically, in some examples, for a particular videoplayer, the playlist service may issue a replacement content request forthat video player. In some examples, the replacement content request mayinclude parameters such as the video player characteristics for thatvideo player, the primary video content characteristics, a requestedduration for the replacement content, and other parameters. Anindication of selected replacement content for the particular videoplayer may then be returned to the playlist service, which may thengenerate a variant playlist for the particular video player in which theindicated segments of the primary video content are replaced by theselected replacement content. In some examples, multiple instances ofthis process may be performed, such as wholly or partially in parallel,for each video player that receives the primary content.

The primary video content and the replacement video content may each bedivided into a number of segments. In some cases, however, the segmentduration of the replacement video content that is selected for aparticular video player may be different from the segment duration ofthe primary video content. For example, in some cases, the segmentduration of the replacement video content may be four seconds, while thesegment duration of the primary video content may be three seconds. Inthese scenarios, it may sometimes not be possible to exactly match aduration of the primary video content that is indicated for replacementwith a duration of the selected replacement content. For example, twosegments of primary video content having three second segment durationsmay be indicated for replacement, which may result in a six second totalduration. However, if the selected replacement content has four secondsegment durations, then the duration of the replacement content mayeither be four seconds (if one replacement segment is used) or eightseconds (if two replacement segments are used). Thus, the duration ofthe replacement content will either be two seconds greater than, or twosecond less than, the duration of the replaced primary content.

In some examples, when the duration of the replacement content and theduration of the replaced primary content cannot be exactly matched, theduration of the replacement content may be selected such that it exceedsthe duration of the replaced primary content by no more than the segmentduration of the primary content. In particular, for the exampledescribed above, two segments of the replacement content (for a total ofeight seconds) may be used to replace the two segments of primarycontent (for a total of six seconds). This may result in the replacementcontent exceeding the replaced primary content by two seconds, which isless than the three second segment duration of the primary content. Insome cases, this approach may be desirable, for example because it maylimit the amount of latency that is introduced into a session as aresult of the replacement content to no more than the segment size ofthe primary content. In some examples, for live streaming, it may beparticularly advantageous to limit the amount of latency introduced byreplacement content, for example such that the primary content maycontinue to be viewed in close time proximity to being captured from alive event.

Moreover, in some examples, various approaches may be employed to reduceor eliminate the latency introduced by the excess duration of thereplacement content. For example, in some cases, when subsequentreplacements are performed for subsequent portions of the replacementcontent, the subsequent replacement content may again be selected toexceed the duration of the subsequent replaced primary content by nomore than the segment duration of the primary content. After multiplereplacements, the combined excess durations of the replacement contentfor the multiple replacements may eventually meet or exceed the segmentduration of the primary content. When this happens, a segment of theprimary content may be dropped in order to reduce or eliminate thelatency introduced by the replacements. As another example, in somecases, frames of the primary video content may be dropped and/or playedat a faster rate in order to reduce latency. As yet another example, insome cases, latency may be reduced by adjusting the timestamps of framesof the primary content. In particular, in some examples, theseadjustments may be applied to one or more frames of the primary contenthaving timestamps preceding a transition point at which the playerswitches from the replacement content back to the primary content.Specifically, the timestamps of these frames may be set to the timestampof the frame immediately following the transition point, causing thoseframes to be decoded quickly (e.g., at faster than real-time) and notdisplayed, while allowing display of the primary content to resume atthe subsequent frame with reduced latency.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example session-specific streamingcontent replacement system that may be used in accordance with thepresent disclosure. As shown in FIG. 1, a primary video content provider100 provides primary video content 111 to a streaming service 110. Atleast part of the primary video content 111 (e.g., primary video contentportions 111A and 111C described below) may then transmitted bystreaming service 110 to a number of video players 120A-N. The primaryvideo content 111 may be transmitted from provider 100 to streamingservice 110, and from streaming service 110 to video players 120A-N,over one or more communications networks, for example including one ormore local area networks (LANs) and/or one or more wide area networks(WANs) such as the Internet. Additionally, the primary video content 111may be transmitted from provider 100 to streaming service 110, and fromstreaming service 110 to video players 120A-N, using streamingtransmission techniques, in which portions of video content may beplayed and displayed to a viewer while subsequent portions of the videocontent are still being transmitted. In some examples, the primary videocontent 111 may correspond to an event, such as a video game, sportingevent, news event, or other live event. In some examples, live streamingtechniques may be employed, in which the primary video content 111 istransmitted and played as the event occurs with only small amounts oflatency relative to its capture, such that at least a portion of thevideo content is played prior to completion of the event. In onespecific example, video game content may be captured by provider 100,for example using screen capture components, and live streamed to thestreaming service 110, which may, in-turn, live stream the video contentto video players 120A-N. Also, in one specific example, the streamingservice 110 may be a video game streaming service to which viewersoperating video players 120A-N may subscribe.

As will be set forth in detail below, the techniques disclosed hereinmay allow a portion of primary video content 111 to be replaced withreplacement video content 112, such as advertisements, notifications,and other types of replacement content. In some examples, replacementvideo content 112 may be provided by at least one replacement videocontent provider 140, such as an advertising service or otherreplacement content provider. In the example of FIG. 1, replacementvideo content 112 includes first replacement video content 112A, secondreplacement video content 112B, third replacement video content 112N. Asshown in FIG. 1, portion 111B of primary video content 111 may bereplaced with replacement video content 112 (as indicated by the dashedlines surrounding portion 111B). In some examples, at least partiallydifferent replacement video content may be provided to various differentvideo players 120A-N. In particular, in the example of FIG. 1, firstreplacement video content 112A is transmitted to video player 120A,second replacement video content 112B is transmitted to video player120B, and third replacement video content 112N is transmitted to videoplayer 120N. Thus, in the example of FIG. 1, video player 120A may playprimary video content portion 111A, followed by first replacement videocontent 112A, followed by primary video content portion 111C. Videoplayer 120B may play primary video content portion 111A, followed bysecond replacement video content 112B, followed by primary video contentportion 111C. Video player 120N may play primary video content portion111A, followed by third replacement video content 112N, followed byprimary video content portion 111C. In one specific example, firstreplacement video content 112A may include a car advertisement, secondreplacement video content 112B may include a restaurant advertisement,and third replacement video content 112N may include an airlineadvertisement. In some examples, however, replacement video content112A-C may merely be partially different from one another, such asdifferent versions or styles of the same content. For example,replacement video content 112A-C may be advertisements for the sameproduct with only minor differences, such as to target the product todifferent geographic regions, age groups, maturity levels, violencelevels, income levels, etc. Moreover, it is noted that there is norequirement that all video players 120A-N must receive differentreplacement content and that two or more (or in some cases all) of thevideo players 120A-N may receive the same replacement content.

Referring now to FIG. 2, an example session-specific playlist generationsystem will now be described in detail. In the example of FIG. 2,primary video content provider 100 may issue a replacement request 205to replace a portion 111B of the primary video content 111. In somecases, as an incentive to request such replacement, provider 100 may becompensated, for example by the streaming service 110, for requesting(or otherwise allowing) portions of the primary video content 111 to bereplaced by advertising or other replacement video content 112. In someexamples, the request 205 may be issued by the provider 100 as theprimary video content 111 is being captured and provided to thestreaming service 110. The request 205 may be received by providerinterface 211, such as a web interface, an application programminginterface (API), and/or any combinations of one or more other types ofcomputing interfaces. In some examples, the request 205 may includeinformation such as a desired duration for the replacement, a desiredtime (e.g., time of day, elapsed transmission time, etc.) for thereplacement to start and/or end, and other information. In someexamples, the request 205 need not necessarily indicate a desiredreplacement start or end time, and the replacement may instead startupon receiving and processing of the request 205, thereby allowing theprovider 100 to live-request (e.g., in real-time or near-real-time) thereplacement of the primary video content 111. In some examples, theprovider 100 may be limited to issuing a certain quantity and/orfrequency of valid replacement requests, and the provider interface 211may confirm that the request 205 does not violate any of these or otherreplacement limits associated with the provider 100.

Upon receiving the replacement request 205, the provider interface 211may generate a notification 230. In some examples, the notification 230may include the replacement duration (and/or other request parameters)as well as an indication of one or more characteristics of the primaryvideo content 111, such as a name or other identifiers of the provider100 and/or channel on which the primary video content 111 is provided, aname, identifier and/or type of content being provided (e.g., game,sporting event, news event, entertainment event, etc.), targeted ageand/or maturity rating, violence rating, language, and othercharacteristics. In some examples, the provider interface 211 may obtainthese characteristics based on information received from the provider100 and/or otherwise determined by streaming service 110. Thenotification 230 may then be provided to a transcoder 212, whichtranscodes the primary video content 111 for delivery to video players120A-N.

Transcoder 212 may periodically generate a master playlist 231 for arespective window of time during the transmission of the primary videocontent 111. Each master playlist 231 may be provided to a playlistservice 213, which uses the master playlist 231 to generate variant(e.g., session-specific) playlists for transmission to each viewer'svideo player. In some examples, for windows of time in which the primaryvideo content 111 is not being replaced, the variant playlists may besimilar or identical to the master playlist 231. However, for windows oftime in which a portion of the primary video content 111 is beingreplaced, the variant playlists may differ both from the master playlistand potentially from one another. In the example of FIG. 1, a variantplaylist 232 is shown for transmission to a particular video player120A.

Video player 120A may periodically issue a playlist request 233 toplaylist service 213 to request a variant playlist 232 for a respectivewindow of time during the transmission of the primary video content 111.In some examples, the playlist request 233 may include or otherwiseindicate one or more characteristics of the video player 120A. Thesecharacteristics may include, for example, a version of the video player120A, a platform on which the video player 120A executes, hardwareand/or software characteristics associated with the video player 120A, aregion or other location associated with the video player 120A,characteristics of an associated viewer (e.g., viewer identifier, viewerage, viewer gender, viewer profile, viewer preferences, languageinformation, etc.), and other characteristics. In some examples, whenthe video player 120A initiates a communications session to receive theprimary video content 111, the video player 120A may provide anindication of its video player characteristics and request a token, forexample from streaming service 110, for issuing the playlist request233. This token may then be submitted with each playlist request 233issued by the video player 120A for the primary video content 111.

When the provider 100 requests replacement of a portion of the primaryvideo content 111, the master playlist 231 that includes that portionmay indicate one or more segments of the primary video content 111 forreplacement. In some examples, the master playlist may include anindication of one or more primary video content characteristics, such asthose described above, as well as an indication of the duration of thereplacement. In some examples, when the playlist service 213 receivesthis master playlist 231, the playlist service 213 may requestreplacement video content for each video player that is viewing theprimary content. In some examples, the replacement content request mayinclude parameters such as the video player characteristics for thatvideo player, the primary video content characteristics, a requestedduration for the replacement content, and other parameters. For example,for video player 120A, the playlist service 213 may issue a replacementcontent request that includes video player characteristics specific tovideo player 120A as well as the other parameters described above.

In some examples, the replacement content request issued by the playlistservice may be provided to replacement manager 214, which may use theparameters indicated in the request to generate a request to replacementvideo content provider 140 to provide an indication of replacementcontent for use in the variant manifest for the particular video player120A. For example, the replacement video content provider 140 mayselect, based at least in part on the video player characteristicsspecific to video player 120A as well as the primary video contentcharacteristics, replacement content for video player 120A. Replacementvideo content provider 140 may return an indication of the selectedreplacement video content to replacement manager 214. It is noted that,in some examples, there may be multiple replacement video contentproviders 140. For example, in some cases, a provider that selectsreplacement video content as described above may be at least partiallydifferent from a service that provides the replacement video content tothe streaming service 110. The replacement manager 214 may then provideinformation regarding the selected replacement content back to playlistservice 213 for inclusion in the variant playlist 232. In some examples,the information returned by replacement manager 214 may include a linkor other indication of a location in which the selected replacementcontent is stored or is otherwise accessible.

Referring now to FIG. 3, an example of master and variant playlists willnow be described in detail. In particular, as shown in FIG. 3, a masterplaylist 300 may be generated by a transcoder 212 that encodes theprimary video content 111. In the example of FIG. 3, master playlist 300includes instructions for a particular window of time corresponding toprimary segments 311-316 of primary video content 111. As shown, themaster playlist 300 includes instructions to replace primary segments313-315 (as indicated by the word REPLACE that is included within thosesegments). As should be appreciated, there is no requirement that amaster playlist must use the word REPLACE to indicate segments forreplacement, and any combination of different techniques may be employedto indicate this. For example, in some cases, to indicate a replacement,transcoder 212 may insert into the master playlist 300 information thatindicates a duration of the replacement as well as characteristics ofthe primary video content 111 such as those described above.

In the example of FIG. 3, playlist service 213 generates, based onmaster playlist 300, three variant playlists 301A-N, which are providedto video players 120A-N, respectively. Each of variant playlists 301A-Nincludes a discontinuity tag 331A to indicate a transition from theprimary video content 111 to the respective selected replacement videocontent. Additionally, each of variant playlists 301A-N includes anotherdiscontinuity tag 331B to indicate a transition from the respectiveselected replacement video content back to the primary video content111. As shown, for variant playlist 301A, primary segments 313-315 arereplaced by three segments 341-343 of Replacement A. For variantplaylist 301B, primary segments 313-315 are replaced by a segment 351 ofReplacement B, followed by a segment 361 of Replacement C, followed by asegment 371 of Replacement D. For variant playlist 301N, primarysegments 313-315 are replaced by two segments 381-382 of Replacement Efollowed by a segment 391 of Replacement F.

In some cases, certain viewers could potentially use the variantplaylists 301A-N to attempt to identify advertising or other replacementcontent and avoid playing of such content. In particular, in some cases,viewers may attempt to identify segment names within the variantplaylists that are different from the segment names of the primary videocontent 111 and/or that correspond to known advertising or otherreplacement content. For these and other reasons, as indicated in note305, in some examples, segment and/or playlist names in master andvariant playlists may be session-specific, encrypted and/or otherwisemodified such as to increase the difficulty of being identifiable.Specifically, the use of session-specific segment and/or playlist namesmay increase the difficulty of identifying replacement content acrossdifferent viewer sessions. For example, even if a particular viewer wereto identify replacement content segment names for a particular session,the use of session-specific names would still prevent (or substantiallyreduce the risk of) those segments being identifiable in other viewersessions. Moreover, the use of encrypted (or otherwise modified) segmentand/or playlist names may prevent (or substantially reduce the risk of)those segment names being identifiable within the variant playlists301A-N. In some examples, symmetric encryption may be employed forencrypting of segment and/or playlist names, whereby only entities inpossession of a secret key may access the encrypted data. In particular,in some cases, a secret key may be distributed across various componentsof a streaming service in a secure manner to allow those components toaccess the encrypted data. This may assist in allowing communicationchannels between components of the streaming service to be kept securefrom inspection of external users.

In some examples, a symmetric cipher may be employed that allowsencrypted data to be authorized before decryption, such asGalois/Counter Mode of Advanced Encryption Standard (GCM-AES) cipher.This property may make it computationally infeasible for externalparties to spoof or modify uniform resource locators (URLs) or otherlocators in the data and remove any necessity for data integrity checksthat may be needed after decryption of the data. Additionally, in someexamples, a binary data format with a well-defined schema may beemployed for the data, such as a format with readily available bindingsfor different programming languages, a strict schema for stored data,and the ability to easily modify existing definitions in abackwards-compatible manner. Furthermore, in some cases, a commonrepository of data definitions may be created to assist in allowinginteroperability between components of the streaming service.

In one specific example, the overall format of URLs used to accesssegments and playlists may fit the following schema:

/v1/playlist/<payload>.m3u8

/v1/segment/<payload>.ts

In one example, the <payload> may a base64 representation of anencrypted binary format. The prefix of the URL may include versioninformation that, for example, may allow changes to be introduced thatcannot be expressed by modification of the data definition. The middlepart may include a redundant marker of the type of the request (e.g.,playlist or segment) and may be provided as information for the playlistservice for routing of different types of requests to differentcomponents. In some examples, the indicated value (e.g., playlist orsegment) in the middle part of the schema may be required to match theindicator stored in the encrypted payload, and non-matching requests maybe rejected. As an example, the URL may look as follows:

/v1/segment/CtUB5rt0gvmes30F-l9itS7idJo4GnoZcp_VvDLXZNjtCJ6CM24NSo7_-hB0DFo5pEmVCwIXU_t2rwzMjZilG8a5M1i5Dtu2M11yt_GsYmQoUt1LAiNrG4FFJ9Vda9Dr87r2WmNxIXFQ0lbfIZKvFei9ZunM6Gpw7KxWXBB8bdFt7abNSKG71H6TNfc62MlHVYpfXkZ1OqdbaKtPLvuskqEEGjnfESQF61ArvQiLhFj8jRnUHlNzBG2dsHepW3PczSp_6gvs5Gh9TMtbNcpgX1voN3QK62EhCLSZsJoBjq3Ze2Gd0gnCTVGgzoyaf4XtS80Q8lkqA

In some examples, the actual data stored in the URL may not be accessedwithout access to a secret symmetric key.

The payload of the URL may be a base64 encoded binary structure. Base64is a textual representation of arbitrary binary data that can be safelyused as part of an Internet URL. Once the conversion from the URL's textto binary string of data is done, the first level of un-marshalling maybe performed to extract elements of the ciphertext as produced by thecipher. One specific example of this information is shown below:

version: GCM/AES

signature: <binary authorization data>

ciphertext: <binary encrypted data>

iv: <binary initialization vector data>

The highlighted version field indicates that GCM/AES is used and mayallow for future changes of the used cipher. The other three componentsare specific to GCM/AES and, once combined with the secret symmetrickey, can be used to extract the actual decrypted payload. Given thatthere may be more than one component of the streaming service that mayhave an interest in accessing the contents of the encrypted URL, abreadth of information may be stored in the payload. The data may bestructured using sub-messages, a way to compose simpler data structuresinto more complex ones.

In some cases, an encrypted segment name may include encrypted data thatrepresents characteristics of a request for an associated segment,characteristics of an associated session, characteristics of anassociated stream, and/or a uniform resource identifier (URI) or otheridentifier for the associated segment. As an example, the URL presentedearlier may represent the following data about a segment request:

request {

-   -   protocol: HTTP    -   playlist_node: “video-edge-2ca3c4.sfo01”    -   expiration {        -   seconds: 1472154874    -   }

}

session {

-   -   id: 2610529275472644968    -   ppid: “12345678”    -   authenticated: true    -   stitching_ads: true

}

stream {

-   -   broadcast_id: “22994026464”    -   channel: “food”    -   quality: “mobile”    -   origin_resource_path: “/hls-833f38/food_22994026464_506008463”

}

segment {

-   -   uri:        “hls-833f38/food_22994026464_506008463/mobile/index-0000010257-sED9.ts”

}

In one example, the above data may be for a URL allowing a download ofone segment of primary video content from the specified “Video Edge”server (e.g., playlist service) for channel “food”. While the above datais for primary video content, replacement video content may also beindicated using the above-described techniques. For example, in somecases, for replacement content, the broadcast_id (or other data) shownin the above example may be changed to a designated value such as“12345678”.

As set forth above, in some examples, replacement video content may beprovided to streaming service 110 by at least one replacement videocontent provider 140, such as an advertising service or otherreplacement content provider. In some examples, upon receivingreplacement video content from a provider 140, the streaming service 110may transcode the replacement video content into a number of renditionshaving different image qualities with respect to one another. Forexample, these different renditions may have different encodingbitrates, resolutions, and/or other different image qualitycharacteristics with respect to one another. In some examples, the videoplayers 120A-N that receive video content from the streaming service 110may have different respective network conditions (e.g., networkbandwidth, congestion, etc.) and computing characteristics (e.g.,processor capacity, memory capacity, etc.) that may determine whichimage quality rendition is suited for each individual video player120A-N. Transcoding the replacement video content into different imagequality renditions may allow different video players to receivedifferent image quality renditions of the replacement content that aresuited for their specific conditions. Moreover, transcoding and storingthe replacement video content in different image quality renditions inadvance of its transmission to the video players 120A-N may allow thedifferent image quality renditions to be available and fetched on-demandupon being selected for replacement, thereby improving efficiency. Insome cases, replacing of primary video content with replacement videocontent that has a substantially lower (or otherwise different) imagequality than the primary video content may cause a poor and inconsistentviewing experience for the viewer. By contrast, transcoding and storingthe replacement video content in different image quality renditions mayallow, for a particular video player 120A-N, replacement video contenthaving the same (or similar) image quality as the primary video contentto be fetched and transmitted, thereby providing a more consistent andimproved viewer experience.

Referring now to FIG. 4, an example of intake, transcoding and storageof replacement video content will now be described in detail. Inparticular, as shown in FIG. 4, three sets of raw replacement videocontent 401-403 may be provided by replacement video content provider140 to streaming service 110. In particular, the raw replacement videocontent 401-403 may be received by replacement content intake components412, which may store the raw replacement video content 401-403 and queueor otherwise notify the replacement content transcoder 411 that the rawreplacement video content 401-403 is available for transcoding. Asshown, raw replacement video content 401 is transcoded by the transcoder411 into three renditions: a high quality rendition 401A, a mediumquality rendition 401B, and a low quality rendition 401C. For example,in some cases, high quality rendition 401A may have a higher encodingbitrate and/or resolution, medium quality rendition 401B may have amedium encoding bitrate and/or resolution, and a low quality rendition401C may have a lower encoding bitrate and/or resolution. As also shown,raw replacement video content 402 is transcoded into high, medium, andlow quality renditions 402A-C, and raw replacement video content 403 istranscoded into high, medium, and low quality renditions 403A-C. Therenditions 401A-C, 402A-C, and 403A-C are then stored in transcodedreplacement content storage 410 such that they may be fetched and playedon demand by video players 120A-N. It is noted that the high, medium,and low quality renditions shown in FIG. 4 are merely examples and thatthere is no requirement that replacement video content must have high,medium, low or any particular quantities or types of differentrenditions.

As set forth above, the primary video content and the replacement videocontent may each be divided into a number of segments. In some cases,however, the segment duration of the replacement video content that isselected for a particular video player may be different from the segmentduration of the primary video content. Referring now to FIG. 5, someexamples of primary video segments and replacement video segments willnow be described in detail. In particular, FIG. 5 includes a diagram 501that shows a set of primary segments 511-518 of the primary videocontent. As shown, each of the primary segments 511-518 has a segmentduration of three seconds. In diagram 501, a determination is made(e.g., in response to a replacement request from primary video contentprovider 100) to replace primary segments 512 and 513 (as indicated bythe thick bold lines around segments 512 and 513).

FIG. 5 includes another diagram 502, which shows an example scenario inwhich the primary video content is replaced by replacement video contenthaving the same segment duration (i.e., three seconds) as the primaryvideo content. Specifically, diagram 502 shows that primary segments 512and 513 are replaced by replacement segments 521 and 522. In diagram502, because replacement segments 521 and 522 have the same segmentduration (i.e., three seconds) as primary video content, there is nolatency introduced by the replacement of primary segments 512 and 513.It is noted that, while no latency may be introduced as a result of thereplacement of segments 512 and 513 in diagram 502, there may still beadditional latency associated with playing of the primary video content,such as latency resulting from transmission of primary video content,latency resulting from buffering of the primary video content and/orother latency.

In contrast to diagram 502, FIG. 5 includes a third diagram 503, whichshows an example scenario in which the primary video content is replacedby replacement video content having a different segment duration thanthe primary video content. Specifically, diagram 503 shows an example inwhich primary video content having a segment duration of three secondsis replaced by replacement video content having a segment duration offour seconds. In the example of diagram 503, it may not be possible toexactly match a total duration of the replaced primary segments 512 and513 (i.e., six seconds) with a duration of the selected replacementcontent. In particular, the duration of the replacement content mayeither be four seconds (if one replacement segment is used) or eightseconds (if two replacement segments are used). Thus, the duration ofthe replacement content will either be two seconds greater than, or twosecond less than, the duration of the replaced primary content.

In some examples, when the duration of the replacement content and theduration of the replaced primary content cannot be exactly matched (suchas in the case of diagram 503), the duration of the replacement contentmay be selected such that it exceeds the duration of the replacedprimary content by no more than the segment duration of the primarycontent. In particular, as shown in diagram 503, two replacementsegments 541 and 542 (having a total duration of eight seconds) may beused to replace primary segments 512 and 513 (having a total duration ofsix seconds). This may result in the replacement content exceeding thereplaced primary content by two seconds, which is less than the threesecond segment duration of the primary content. In some cases, thisapproach may be desirable, for example because it may limit the amountof latency that is introduced into session as a result of thereplacement content to no more than the segment size of the primarycontent. In some examples, for live streaming, it may be particularlyadvantageous to limit the amount of latency introduced by replacementcontent, for example such that the primary content may continue to beviewed in close time proximity to being captured from a live event. Onceagain, it is noted that there may be other latency associated withplaying of the primary content due to other factors besides contentreplacement, such as latency due to transmission time, buffering, etc.The above discussion is not intended to imply that there must be nolatency other than latency introduced by the replacement techniquesdescribed herein.

Additionally, in some examples, various approaches may be employed toreduce or eliminate the latency introduced by the excess duration of thereplacement content. For example, when subsequent replacements areperformed for subsequent portions of the replacement content, thesubsequent replacement content may again be selected to exceed theduration of the subsequent replaced primary content by no more than thesegment duration of the primary content. In some examples, playlistservice 213 may keep track of the total latency introduced by the excessduration of each insertion of replacement content for a particularsession, for example by maintaining a counter or other stored value thatreflects this excess duration. After multiple replacements, the combinedexcess durations of the replacement content for the multiplereplacements may eventually meet or exceed the segment duration of theprimary content. When this happens, a segment of the primary content maybe dropped in order to reduce or eliminate the latency introduced by thereplacements.

Specifically, diagram 504, shows an example in which, in addition toreplacing segments 512 and 513, a determination is also made (e.g., inresponse to a replacement request from primary video content provider100) to replace primary segment 516 (as indicated by the thick boldlines around segment 516). Additionally, diagram 505 shows anotherexample in which the replacement video content has a four second segmentduration. In particular, in diagram 505, primary segments 512 and 513are replaced by replacement segments 541 and 542 just as shown above indiagram 503. Additionally, in diagram 505, a determination is made toreplace primary segment 516 with replacement segment 543. As shown, thesubstitution of replacement segment 543 for primary segment 516introduces an additional second of latency. This causes the totallatency introduced by the insertion of replacement segments 541, 542 and543 to increase to three seconds, which is equivalent to the segmentsize of the primary content. Accordingly, in this example, upondetermining that the total introduced latency has become equivalent tothe segment size of the primary content, the playlist service 213 maydetermine to drop the next primary segment (e.g., primary segment 517),which is indicated by the downward arrow extending from diagram 505 toprimary segment 517. As shown, upon dropping of primary segment 517, thelatency introduced by the insertion of replacement segments 541, 542 and543 is removed.

It is noted that the segment dropping techniques shown in diagram 505are merely one example latency reduction technique and that otherlatency reduction techniques may also be employed. For example, in somecases, subsequent to a replacement that introduces latency, frames ofthe primary video content may be dropped and/or played at a faster ratein order to reduce latency. As yet another example, in some cases,latency may be reduced by adjusting the timestamps of frames of theprimary content. In particular, in some examples, these adjustments maybe applied to one or more frames of the primary content havingtimestamps preceding a transition point at which the player switchesfrom the replacement content back to the primary content. Specifically,the timestamps of these frames may be set to the timestamp of the frameimmediately following the transition point, causing those frames to bedecoded quickly (e.g., at faster than real-time) and not displayed,while allowing display of the primary content to resume at thesubsequent frame with reduced latency.

Referring now to FIG. 6, an example timestamp adjustment will now bedescribed in detail. In particular, as shown in FIG. 6, a portion ofprimary video content may include three primary segments 606, 607 and608. Each of primary segments 606-608 has a segment duration of fourseconds. Additionally, each of primary segments 606-608 includes fourvideo frames. In particular, primary segment 606 includes frames withtimestamp values 620-623, primary segment 607 includes frames withtimestamp values 624-627, and primary segment 608 includes frames withtimestamp values 628-631. A determination may be made to replace primarysegment 607 (as indicated by the word “Replaced” shown in primarysegment 607). As shown in FIG. 6, primary segment 607 is replaced byreplacement segment 611, which has a segment duration of six seconds.Replacement segment 611 includes frames with timestamp values 691-696.At a transition point 650, which is at the end of primary segment 606, arespective video player may switch from the primary content to thereplacement segment 611. Additionally, at a subsequent transition point651, which is at the end of replacement segment 611, the respectivevideo player may switch back from replacement segment 611 to the primarycontent. As should be appreciated, the substitution of replacementsegment 611 for primary segment 607 results in an introduction of twoseconds of latency into the playing of the primary content. In theexample of FIG. 6, a determination is made by the respective videoplayer to remove the two seconds of latency introduced by thisreplacement by adjusting the timestamp values 628 and 629 for the firsttwo frames in segment 607. In particular, the timestamp values 628 and629 are both changed to the timestamp value 630 of the frame immediatelyfollowing the transition point 651. This is indicated in FIG. 6 byshowing the adjusted-to timestamp value 630 in parentheses just belowthe adjusted-from timestamp values 628 and 629. This timestampadjustment causes the two frames with adjusted timestamps to be decodedmore quickly than the other primary content frames (e.g., at faster thanreal-time), which removes the latency introduced by the replacement ofprimary segment 607. Additionally, the two frames with adjustedtimestamps are not displayed by the video player. The display of theprimary content may resume at the subsequent frame immediately followingthe transition point 651.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example session-specific streamingcontent replacement process that may be used in accordance with thepresent disclosure. As shown, the process of FIG. 7 may begin atoperation 710, at which first streaming video content, such as primaryvideo content 111 FIG. 1, is received. As set forth above, in someexamples, the first streaming video content may be received by astreaming service from a provider, such as primary video contentprovider 100 of FIG. 1. The first streaming video content may bereceived for transmission to a plurality of video players, for exampleincluding a first video player and a second video player. In someexamples, the first streaming video content may be live streaming videocontent. Live streaming video content may include video of an event(e.g., a video game, sports event, news event, etc.) that is transmittedand played as the event occurs with only small amounts of latencyrelative to its capture, such that at least a portion of the videocontent is played prior to completion of the event.

At operation 712, a replacement request is received for replacement ofpart of the first streaming video content with other video content. Insome examples, the replacement request may be received from the providerof the first streaming video content. Also, in some examples, thereplacement request may be received during the receiving of the firststreaming video content at operation 710. In some examples, thereplacement request may include information such as a desired durationfor the replacement, a desired time (e.g., time of day, elapsedtransmission time, etc.) for the replacement to start and/or end, andother information. In some examples, the replacement request need notnecessarily indicate a desired replacement start or end time, and thereplacement may instead start upon receiving and processing of thereplacement request, thereby allowing the provider to live-request(e.g., in real-time or near-real-time) the replacement of the firststreaming video content. In some examples, the first streaming videocontent provider may be limited to issuing a certain quantity and/orfrequency of valid replacement requests, and, in order to proceed withprocessing of the replacement request, it may first be determined thatthe replacement request does not result in violation of the frequencyand/or quantity.

At operation 714, a second portion of the first streaming video content(e.g., primary video content portion 111B of FIG. 1) is determined toreplace with the other streaming video content. As set forth above, insome examples, the second portion may be determined based, at least inpart, on a replacement duration that may be indicated in the replacementrequest. Additionally, in some examples, the second portion may bedetermined based, at least in part, on when the replacement request isreceived, such as a time at which the request is received by providerinterface 211 and/or transcoder 212. For example, in some cases, thereplacement may be initiated upon receiving and processing of thereplacement request. Furthermore, in some examples, the second portionmay be determined based, at least in part, on a start time and/or endtime that may sometimes be indicated in the replacement request.Additionally, in some examples, operation 714 may include a two-stageprocess for determining the second portion of the first streaming videocontent to replace. For example, in a first stage, a transcoder (e.g.,transcoder 212 of FIG. 2) may determine a preferred portion of the firststreaming video content that is to be replaced, such as based on theduration and/or timing of the replacement request from the provider.Additionally, in a second stage, a playlist service (e.g., playlistservice 213 of FIG. 2) may then adjust the preferred portion determinedin the first stage, for example based on factors such as latencyassociated with selection of the replacement content (e.g., includingdelays in receiving an indication of that selection). For example, along latency for replacement content selection may cause the playlistservice to replace a subsequent portion of the first streaming videocontent that is received and transcoded subsequent to the preferredportion selected initially by the transcoder.

At operation 716, a master playlist is generated, for example by atranscoder that transcodes the first streaming video content. In someexamples, the master playlist may indicate a first portion of the firststreaming video content (e.g., primary video content portion 111A ofFIG. 1), the second portion of the first streaming video content (e.g.,primary video content portion 111B of FIG. 1), and a third portion ofthe first streaming video content (e.g., primary video content portion111C of FIG. 1). Additionally, in some examples, the master playlist mayindicate that the second portion of the first streaming video content isselected for replacement by other video content. Furthermore, in someexamples, the master playlist may indicate one or more characteristicsof the first streaming video content, such as one or morecharacteristics of the provider of the first streaming video content, achannel on which the first streaming video content is provided, a name,identifier and/or type of content being provided (e.g., game, sportingevent, news event, entertainment event, etc.), targeted age and/ormaturity rating, violence rating, language, and/or othercharacteristics. At operation 718, the master playlist is provided to aplaylist service, such as playlist service 213 of FIG. 2.

At operation 720A, the playlist service receives a first variantplaylist request from the first video player. In some examples,operation 720A may include receiving an indication of one or morecharacteristics associated with the first video player, which may beincluded in (or otherwise indicated by) the first variant playlistrequest. In some examples, the one or more characteristics associatedwith the first video player may include a version of the first videoplayer, characteristics of a computer system (e.g., platform, hardware,software, region, location, etc.) on which the first video playerexecutes, characteristics of a viewer (e.g., age, gender, location,profile, preferences, etc.) that operates the first video player and/orother characteristics.

At operation 722A, the playlist service requests a selection ofreplacement video content for the first player. For example, theplaylist service may issue a request, based at least in part on themaster playlist, for the selection that includes one or morecharacteristics of the first streaming video content, one or morecharacteristics of the first video player, a duration of the replacementand/or other information. At operation 724A, the playlist servicereceives a selection of second streaming video content as a replacementfor the first video player. In some examples, the second streaming videocontent may be selected as a replacement based, at least in part, on oneor more characteristics of the first streaming video content, one ormore characteristics of the first video player, a duration of thereplacement and/or other information. In some examples, the secondstreaming video content may include one or more advertisements,notifications, and/or other replacement content.

At operation 726A, the playlist service generates and transmits, to thefirst video player, first instructions (e.g., a first variant playlist)to play the first portion of first streaming video content, followed bythe second streaming video content, followed by the third portion offirst streaming video content. The second video content may replace thesecond portion of the first streaming video content that was determinedfor replacement at operation 714. As set forth above, in some examples,the first instructions may include one or more segment names that areencrypted. Additionally, in some examples, the first instructions mayinclude one or more session-specific segment names. For example, one ormore video segments may be indicated in both the first instructions andthe second instructions sent to the second video player (describedbelow) and may be assigned a different segment name in the firstinstructions than in the second instructions.

At operation 728A, the first portion of the first streaming videocontent, the second streaming video content, and the third portion offirst streaming video content are transmitted to the second videoplayer. For example, the second video player may request and fetch thefirst portion of the first streaming video content, the second streamingvideo content, and the third portion of first streaming video contentbased on the first instructions provided at operation 726A. In someexamples, the second streaming video content may be encoded (e.g.,transcoded), prior to selection of the second video content for thefirst video player, into a plurality of renditions having differentrespective image qualities, and the plurality of renditions may bestored, for example such as shown in FIG. 4 and described above. In someexamples, this may allow the second video content to be fetchedon-demand by the first video player and to be transmitted with an imagequality that is suited for characteristics of the first video playerand/or that is the same (or similar to) the image quality of the firststreaming video content transmitted to the first video player.

At operation 730A, for cases in which a duration of the second streamingvideo content (i.e., the replacement content) exceeds a duration of thesecond portion of the first streaming video content (i.e., the replacedcontent), a latency reduction may be performed. For example, as setforth above, a segment duration of the first streaming video content andthe second streaming video content may sometimes not be the same. Insome scenarios, this may cause the duration of the replacement contentto be different from the duration of the replaced content. In someexamples, in these scenarios, the replacement content may sometimes beselected to have a duration that exceeds the duration of the replacedcontent. Also, in some examples, the duration of the second streamingvideo content (i.e., the replacement content) may be limited toexceeding a duration of the second portion of the first streaming videocontent (i.e., the replaced content) by no more than a segment durationof the first streaming video content. Thus, in some examples, theduration of the second streaming video content (i.e., the replacementcontent) may exceed the duration of the second portion of the firststreaming video content (i.e., the replaced content) by a first excessduration. The first excess duration may introduce a first latency intothe playing of the first streaming video content by the first videoplayer. In this scenario, various techniques may be performed remove atleast part of the first latency from at least part of the firststreaming video content that is played subsequent to the secondstreaming video content. For example, in some cases, one or more framesof the first streaming video content may be dropped from the playing ofthe first streaming video content by the first video player. Also, insome cases, a rate at which one or more frames of the first streamingvideo content are played by the first video player may be increased, forexample relative to the rate of playing of other frames of the firststreaming video content. Additionally, in some cases, latency may bereduced by dropping a segment of the first streaming video content, forexample as shown in FIG. 8 and described below. Furthermore, in somecases, latency may be reduced by adjusting timestamps of the firststreaming video content, for example as shown in FIG. 9 and describedbelow.

As shown in FIG. 7, operations 720A-730A may be performed for a firstvideo player, and respective operations 720B-730B may be performed for asecond video player. Operations 720B-730B may be performed using similartechniques as operations 720A-730A described above, and are thereforenot described in detail. In particular, at operation 720B, the playlistservice receives a second variant playlist request from the second videoplayer. In some examples, operation 720B may include receiving anindication of one or more characteristics associated with the secondvideo player, which may be included in (or otherwise indicated by) thesecond variant playlist request. At operation 722B, the playlist servicerequests a selection of replacement video content for the second player.For example, the playlist service may issue a request, based at least inpart on the master playlist, for the selection that includes one or morecharacteristics of the first streaming video content, one or morecharacteristics of the second video player, a duration of thereplacement and/or other information. At operation 724B, the playlistservice receives a selection of third streaming video content as areplacement for the second video player. In some examples, the thirdstreaming video content may be selected as a replacement based, at leastin part, on one or more characteristics of the first streaming videocontent, one or more characteristics of the second video player, aduration of the replacement and/or other information. In some examples,the third streaming video content may include one or moreadvertisements, notifications, and/or other replacement content. In someexamples, the third streaming video content may be at least partiallydifferent from the second streaming video content selected as areplacement for the first video player. At operation 726B, the playlistservice generates and transmits, to the second video player, secondinstructions (e.g., a second variant playlist) to play the first portionof first streaming video content, followed by the third streaming videocontent, followed by the third portion of first streaming video content.The third video content may replace the second portion of the firststreaming video content that was determined for replacement at operation714. At operation 728B, the first portion of the first streaming videocontent, the third streaming video content, and the third portion offirst streaming video content are transmitted to the second videoplayer. At operation 730B, for cases in which a duration of the thirdstreaming video content (i.e., the replacement content) exceeds aduration of the second portion of the first streaming video content(i.e., the replaced content), a latency reduction may be performed, forexample as described at operation 730A above and/or as shown in FIGS.8-9 and described below.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example process for latencyreduction by way of segment dropping that may be used in accordance withthe present disclosure. As shown, the process of FIG. 8 may begin atoperation 810, at which a portion of first streaming video content isreplaced with replacement video content. For example, in some cases, thefirst iteration of operation 810 may include replacing a second portionof the first streaming video content with second streaming videocontent, such as described above with reference to operations 720A-730A.One example of such a replacement is shown in diagram 505 of FIG. 5, inwhich primary segments 512 and 513 are replaced by replacement segments541 and 542.

At operation 812, it is determined whether the replacement content has alonger duration then the replaced content. As set forth above, in someexamples, a segment duration of the selected replacement content and thereplaced content may sometimes not be the same. In some scenarios, thismay cause the duration of the replacement content to be different fromthe duration of the replaced content. In some examples, in thesescenarios, the replacement content may sometimes be selected to have aduration that exceeds the duration of the replaced content by no morethan the segment duration of the replaced content. If the durations ofthe replacement content and the replaced content are equal, then theprocess returns to operation 810. If the duration of the replacementcontent exceeds the duration of the replaced content, then the processproceeds to operation 814, at which the excess duration of thereplacement content is added to an excess duration counter that reflectsa total excess duration across multiple replacements. For example, indiagram 505 the total duration of replacement segments 541 and 542(eight seconds) exceeds a total duration of replaced primary segments512 and 513 (six seconds) by a first excess duration of two seconds.Thus, in this example, two seconds may be added to the excess durationcounter at operation 814.

At operation 816, it is determined whether the excess duration countermeets or exceeds a segment duration of the first streaming videocontent. If not, then the process returns to operation 810. For example,the two second duration added as a result of replacing primary segments512 and 513 with replacement segments 541 and 542 does not exceed theprimary content segment duration of three seconds. Thus, in thisexample, the process will return from operation 816 to operation 810. Ona second iteration of operation 810, instructions may be transmitted tothe first video player to play third streaming video content thatreplaces a fourth portion of the first streaming video content. Oneexample of such a replacement is shown in diagram 505 of FIG. 5, inwhich primary segment 516 is replaced by replacement segment 543. Thetotal duration of replacement segment 543 (four seconds) exceeds a totalduration of replaced primary segment 516 (three seconds) by a secondexcess duration of one second. Thus, in this example, one second may beadded to the excess duration counter on the second iteration ofoperation 814. Additionally, in this example, on the second iteration ofoperation 816, it may be determined that the sum of the first excessduration (two seconds) and the second excess duration (one second)stored in the excess duration counter is equivalent to the segmentduration of the first streaming video content (three seconds). Thus, inthis example, the process may proceed from operation 816 to operation818, at which a segment of the first streaming video content may bedropped, for example from playing by the first video player. Forexample, in diagram 505, primary segment 517 is dropped from playing ofthe primary video content. This dropping may be performed, based atleast in part, on determining, at operation 816, that the excessduration counter meets or exceeds the segment duration of the firststreaming video content. At operation 820, the segment duration of thefirst streaming video content may be subtracted from the excess durationcounter in order to reflect the dropping of the segment at operation818. The process then returns to operation 810.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example process for latencyreduction by way of timestamp adjustment that may be used in accordancewith the present disclosure. As shown, the process of FIG. 9 may beginat operation 910, at which a portion of first streaming video content isreplaced with second streaming video content that has a longer durationthan the replaced portion of the first streaming video content. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 6, primary segment 607, having a duration offour seconds, may be replaced by replacement segment 611, having aduration of six seconds. At operation 912, a transition frame of thefirst streaming video content associated with a transition from playingof the second streaming video content to playing of the first streamingvideo content is determined. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, transitionpoint 651 indicates a transition from playing of the replacement videocontent to playing of the primary video content. The frame immediatelyfollowing the transition point 651 (e.g., the third frame of primarysegment 608) is, therefore, determined to be the transition frame.

At operation 914, a timestamp value assigned to the transition frame isidentified. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, a timestamp value 630 isassigned to the transition frame (e.g., the third frame of segment 608).At operation 916, the timestamp of one or more frames of the firststreaming video content prior to the transition frame are adjusted froma previous value to the value of the transition frame. For example,timestamps may be adjusted for each frame prior to the transition framein the same segment as the transition frame. As shown in FIG. 6, atimestamp value of the first frame in segment 608 is adjusted from avalue of 628 to a value of 630. Additionally, a timestamp value of thesecond frame in segment 608 is adjusted from a value of 629 to a valueof 630. This timestamp adjustment causes the two frames with adjustedtimestamp values to be decoded more quickly than the other primarycontent frames (e.g., at faster than real-time), which removes thelatency introduced by the replacement of primary segment 607. Atoperation 916, playing of the first streaming video content is resumedat the transition frame. For example, in FIG. 6, the display of theprimary content may resume at the transition frame (e.g., the thirdframe in segment 608). Additionally, the one or more frames withadjusted timestamp values (e.g., the first and second frames in segment608) may not displayed by the video player.

An example system for transmitting and providing data will now bedescribed in detail. In particular, FIG. 10 illustrates an examplecomputing environment in which the embodiments described herein may beimplemented. FIG. 10 is a diagram schematically illustrating an exampleof a data center 85 that can provide computing resources to users 70 aand 70 b (which may be referred herein singularly as user 70 or in theplural as users 70) via user computers 72 a and 72 b (which may bereferred herein singularly as computer 72 or in the plural as computers72) via a communications network 73. Data center 85 may be configured toprovide computing resources for executing applications on a permanent oran as-needed basis. The computing resources provided by data center 85may include various types of resources, such as gateway resources, loadbalancing resources, routing resources, networking resources, computingresources, volatile and non-volatile memory resources, content deliveryresources, data processing resources, data storage resources, datacommunication resources and the like. Each type of computing resourcemay be available in a number of specific configurations. For example,data processing resources may be available as VM instances that may beconfigured to provide various web services. In addition, combinations ofresources may be made available via a network and may be configured asone or more web services. The instances may be configured to executeapplications, including web services, such as application services,media services, database services, processing services, gatewayservices, storage services, routing services, security services,encryption services, load balancing services, application services andthe like. These services may be configurable with set or customapplications and may be configurable in size, execution, cost, latency,type, duration, accessibility and in any other dimension. These webservices may be configured as available infrastructure for one or moreclients and can include one or more applications configured as aplatform or as software for one or more clients. These web services maybe made available via one or more communications protocols. Thesecommunications protocols may include, for example, hypertext transferprotocol (HTTP) or non-HTTP protocols. These communications protocolsmay also include, for example, more reliable transport layer protocols,such as transmission control protocol (TCP), and less reliable transportlayer protocols, such as user datagram protocol (UDP). Data storageresources may include file storage devices, block storage devices andthe like.

Each type or configuration of computing resource may be available indifferent sizes, such as large resources—consisting of many processors,large amounts of memory and/or large storage capacity—and smallresources—consisting of fewer processors, smaller amounts of memoryand/or smaller storage capacity. Customers may choose to allocate anumber of small processing resources as web servers and/or one largeprocessing resource as a database server, for example.

Data center 85 may include servers 76 a and 76 b (which may be referredherein singularly as server 76 or in the plural as servers 76) thatprovide computing resources. These resources may be available as baremetal resources or as VM instances 78 a-d (which may be referred hereinsingularly as VM instance 78 or in the plural as VM instances 78).

The availability of virtualization technologies for computing hardwarehas afforded benefits for providing large scale computing resources forcustomers and allowing computing resources to be efficiently andsecurely shared between multiple customers. For example, virtualizationtechnologies may allow a physical computing device to be shared amongmultiple users by providing each user with one or more VM instanceshosted by the physical computing device. A VM instance may be a softwareemulation of a particular physical computing system that acts as adistinct logical computing system. Such a VM instance provides isolationamong multiple operating systems sharing a given physical computingresource. Furthermore, some virtualization technologies may providevirtual resources that span one or more physical resources, such as asingle VM instance with multiple virtual processors that span multipledistinct physical computing systems.

Referring to FIG. 10, communications network 73 may, for example, be apublicly accessible network of linked networks and possibly operated byvarious distinct parties, such as the Internet. In other embodiments,communications network 73 may be a private network, such as a corporateor university network that is wholly or partially inaccessible tonon-privileged users. In still other embodiments, communications network73 may include one or more private networks with access to and/or fromthe Internet.

Communication network 73 may provide access to computers 72. Usercomputers 72 may be computers utilized by users 70 or other customers ofdata center 85. For instance, user computer 72 a or 72 b may be aserver, a desktop or laptop personal computer, a tablet computer, awireless telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), an e-bookreader, a game console, a set-top box or any other computing devicecapable of accessing data center 85. User computer 72 a or 72 b mayconnect directly to the Internet (e.g., via a cable modem or a DigitalSubscriber Line (DSL)). Although only two user computers 72 a and 72 bare depicted, it should be appreciated that there may be multiple usercomputers.

User computers 72 may also be utilized to configure aspects of thecomputing resources provided by data center 85. In this regard, datacenter 85 might provide a gateway or web interface through which aspectsof its operation may be configured through the use of a web browserapplication program executing on user computer 72. Alternately, astand-alone application program executing on user computer 72 mightaccess an application programming interface (API) exposed by data center85 for performing the configuration operations. Other mechanisms forconfiguring the operation of various web services available at datacenter 85 might also be utilized.

Servers 76 shown in FIG. 10 may be servers configured appropriately forproviding the computing resources described above and may providecomputing resources for executing one or more web services and/orapplications. In one embodiment, the computing resources may be VMinstances 78. In the example of VM instances, each of the servers 76 maybe configured to execute an instance manager 80 a or 80 b (which may bereferred herein singularly as instance manager 80 or in the plural asinstance managers 80) capable of executing the VM instances 78. Theinstance managers 80 may be a VM monitor (VMM) or another type ofprogram configured to enable the execution of VM instances 78 on server76, for example. As discussed above, each of the VM instances 78 may beconfigured to execute all or a portion of an application.

It should be appreciated that although the embodiments disclosed abovediscuss the context of VM instances, other types of implementations canbe utilized with the concepts and technologies disclosed herein. Forexample, the embodiments disclosed herein might also be utilized withcomputing systems that do not utilize VM instances.

In the example data center 85 shown in FIG. 10, a router 71 may beutilized to interconnect the servers 76 a and 76 b. Router 71 may alsobe connected to gateway 74, which is connected to communications network73. Router 71 may be connected to one or more load balancers, and aloneor in combination may manage communications within networks in datacenter 85, for example, by forwarding packets or other datacommunications as appropriate based on characteristics of suchcommunications (e.g., header information including source and/ordestination addresses, protocol identifiers, size, processingrequirements, etc.) and/or the characteristics of the private network(e.g., routes based on network topology, etc.). It will be appreciatedthat, for the sake of simplicity, various aspects of the computingsystems and other devices of this example are illustrated withoutshowing certain conventional details. Additional computing systems andother devices may be interconnected in other embodiments and may beinterconnected in different ways.

In the example data center 85 shown in FIG. 10, a server manager 75 isalso employed to at least in part direct various communications to, fromand/or between servers 76 a and 76 b. While FIG. 10 depicts router 71positioned between gateway 74 and server manager 75, this is merely anexemplary configuration. In some cases, for example, server manager 75may be positioned between gateway 74 and router 71. Server manager 75may, in some cases, examine portions of incoming communications fromuser computers 72 to determine one or more appropriate servers 76 toreceive and/or process the incoming communications. Server manager 75may determine appropriate servers to receive and/or process the incomingcommunications based on factors such as an identity, location or otherattributes associated with user computers 72, a nature of a task withwhich the communications are associated, a priority of a task with whichthe communications are associated, a duration of a task with which thecommunications are associated, a size and/or estimated resource usage ofa task with which the communications are associated and many otherfactors. Server manager 75 may, for example, collect or otherwise haveaccess to state information and other information associated withvarious tasks in order to, for example, assist in managingcommunications and other operations associated with such tasks.

It should be appreciated that the network topology illustrated in FIG.10 has been greatly simplified and that many more networks andnetworking devices may be utilized to interconnect the various computingsystems disclosed herein. These network topologies and devices should beapparent to those skilled in the art.

It should also be appreciated that data center 85 described in FIG. 10is merely illustrative and that other implementations might be utilized.It should also be appreciated that a server, gateway or other computingdevice may comprise any combination of hardware or software that caninteract and perform the described types of functionality, includingwithout limitation: desktop or other computers, database servers,network storage devices and other network devices, PDAs, tablets,cellphones, wireless phones, pagers, electronic organizers, Internetappliances, television-based systems (e.g., using set top boxes and/orpersonal/digital video recorders) and various other consumer productsthat include appropriate communication capabilities.

In at least some embodiments, a server that implements a portion or allof one or more of the technologies described herein may include acomputer system that includes or is configured to access one or morecomputer-accessible media. FIG. 11 depicts a computer system thatincludes or is configured to access one or more computer-accessiblemedia. In the illustrated embodiment, computing device 15 includes oneor more processors 10 a, 10 b and/or 10 n (which may be referred hereinsingularly as “a processor 10” or in the plural as “the processors 10”)coupled to a system memory 20 via an input/output (I/O) interface 30.Computing device 15 further includes a network interface 40 coupled toI/O interface 30.

In various embodiments, computing device 15 may be a uniprocessor systemincluding one processor 10 or a multiprocessor system including severalprocessors 10 (e.g., two, four, eight or another suitable number).Processors 10 may be any suitable processors capable of executinginstructions. For example, in various embodiments, processors 10 may beembedded processors implementing any of a variety of instruction setarchitectures (ISAs), such as the x86, PowerPC, SPARC or MIPS ISAs orany other suitable ISA. In multiprocessor systems, each of processors 10may commonly, but not necessarily, implement the same ISA.

System memory 20 may be configured to store instructions and dataaccessible by processor(s) 10. In various embodiments, system memory 20may be implemented using any suitable memory technology, such as staticrandom access memory (SRAM), synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM),nonvolatile/Flash®-type memory or any other type of memory. In theillustrated embodiment, program instructions and data implementing oneor more desired functions, such as those methods, techniques and datadescribed above, are shown stored within system memory 20 as code 25 anddata 26.

In one embodiment, I/O interface 30 may be configured to coordinate I/Otraffic between processor 10, system memory 20 and any peripherals inthe device, including network interface 40 or other peripheralinterfaces. In some embodiments, I/O interface 30 may perform anynecessary protocol, timing or other data transformations to convert datasignals from one component (e.g., system memory 20) into a formatsuitable for use by another component (e.g., processor 10). In someembodiments, I/O interface 30 may include support for devices attachedthrough various types of peripheral buses, such as a variant of thePeripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus standard or the UniversalSerial Bus (USB) standard, for example. In some embodiments, thefunction of I/O interface 30 may be split into two or more separatecomponents, such as a north bridge and a south bridge, for example.Also, in some embodiments some or all of the functionality of I/Ointerface 30, such as an interface to system memory 20, may beincorporated directly into processor 10.

Network interface 40 may be configured to allow data to be exchangedbetween computing device 15 and other device or devices 60 attached to anetwork or networks 50, such as other computer systems or devices, forexample. In various embodiments, network interface 40 may supportcommunication via any suitable wired or wireless general data networks,such as types of Ethernet networks, for example. Additionally, networkinterface 40 may support communication via telecommunications/telephonynetworks, such as analog voice networks or digital fiber communicationsnetworks, via storage area networks such as Fibre Channel SANs (storagearea networks) or via any other suitable type of network and/orprotocol.

In some embodiments, system memory 20 may be one embodiment of acomputer-accessible medium configured to store program instructions anddata as described above for implementing embodiments of thecorresponding methods and apparatus. However, in other embodiments,program instructions and/or data may be received, sent or stored upondifferent types of computer-accessible media. Generally speaking, acomputer-accessible medium may include non-transitory storage media ormemory media, such as magnetic or optical media—e.g., disk or DVD/CDcoupled to computing device 15 via I/O interface 30. A non-transitorycomputer-accessible storage medium may also include any volatile ornon-volatile media, such as RAM (e.g., SDRAM, DDR SDRAM, RDRAM, SRAM,etc.), ROM (read only memory) etc., that may be included in someembodiments of computing device 15 as system memory 20 or another typeof memory. Further, a computer-accessible medium may includetransmission media or signals such as electrical, electromagnetic ordigital signals conveyed via a communication medium, such as a networkand/or a wireless link, such as those that may be implemented vianetwork interface 40.

A network set up by an entity, such as a company or a public sectororganization, to provide one or more web services (such as various typesof cloud-based computing or storage) accessible via the Internet and/orother networks to a distributed set of clients may be termed a providernetwork. Such a provider network may include numerous data centershosting various resource pools, such as collections of physical and/orvirtualized computer servers, storage devices, networking equipment andthe like, needed to implement and distribute the infrastructure and webservices offered by the provider network. The resources may in someembodiments be offered to clients in various units related to the webservice, such as an amount of storage capacity for storage, processingcapability for processing, as instances, as sets of related services andthe like. A virtual computing instance may, for example, comprise one ormore servers with a specified computational capacity (which may bespecified by indicating the type and number of CPUs, the main memorysize and so on) and a specified software stack (e.g., a particularversion of an operating system, which may in turn run on top of ahypervisor).

A compute node, which may be referred to also as a computing node, maybe implemented on a wide variety of computing environments, such ascommodity-hardware computers, VMs, web services, computing clusters andcomputing appliances. Any of these computing devices or environmentsmay, for convenience, be described as compute nodes.

A number of different types of computing devices may be used singly orin combination to implement the resources of the provider network indifferent embodiments, for example computer servers, storage devices,network devices and the like. In some embodiments a client or user maybe provided direct access to a resource instance, e.g., by giving a useran administrator login and password. In other embodiments the providernetwork operator may allow clients to specify execution requirements forspecified client applications and schedule execution of the applicationson behalf of the client on execution platforms (such as applicationserver instances, Java™ VMs (JVMs), general-purpose or special-purposeoperating systems, platforms that support various interpreted orcompiled programming languages such as Ruby, Perl, Python, C, C++ andthe like or high-performance computing platforms) suitable for theapplications, without, for example, requiring the client to access aninstance or an execution platform directly. A given execution platformmay utilize one or more resource instances in some implementations; inother implementations, multiple execution platforms may be mapped to asingle resource instance.

In many environments, operators of provider networks that implementdifferent types of virtualized computing, storage and/or othernetwork-accessible functionality may allow customers to reserve orpurchase access to resources in various resource acquisition modes. Thecomputing resource provider may provide facilities for customers toselect and launch the desired computing resources, deploy applicationcomponents to the computing resources and maintain an applicationexecuting in the environment. In addition, the computing resourceprovider may provide further facilities for the customer to quickly andeasily scale up or scale down the numbers and types of resourcesallocated to the application, either manually or through automaticscaling, as demand for or capacity requirements of the applicationchange. The computing resources provided by the computing resourceprovider may be made available in discrete units, which may be referredto as instances. An instance may represent a physical server hardwareplatform, a VM instance executing on a server or some combination of thetwo. Various types and configurations of instances may be madeavailable, including different sizes of resources executing differentoperating systems (OS) and/or hypervisors, and with various installedsoftware applications, runtimes and the like. Instances may further beavailable in specific availability zones, representing a logical region,a fault tolerant region, a data center or other geographic location ofthe underlying computing hardware, for example. Instances may be copiedwithin an availability zone or across availability zones to improve theredundancy of the instance, and instances may be migrated within aparticular availability zone or across availability zones. As oneexample, the latency for client communications with a particular serverin an availability zone may be less than the latency for clientcommunications with a different server. As such, an instance may bemigrated from the higher latency server to the lower latency server toimprove the overall client experience.

In some embodiments the provider network may be organized into aplurality of geographical regions, and each region may include one ormore availability zones. An availability zone (which may also bereferred to as an availability container) in turn may comprise one ormore distinct locations or data centers, configured in such a way thatthe resources in a given availability zone may be isolated or insulatedfrom failures in other availability zones. That is, a failure in oneavailability zone may not be expected to result in a failure in anyother availability zone. Thus, the availability profile of a resourceinstance is intended to be independent of the availability profile of aresource instance in a different availability zone. Clients may be ableto protect their applications from failures at a single location bylaunching multiple application instances in respective availabilityzones. At the same time, in some implementations inexpensive and lowlatency network connectivity may be provided between resource instancesthat reside within the same geographical region (and networktransmissions between resources of the same availability zone may beeven faster).

As set forth above, content may be provided by a content provider to oneor more clients. The term content, as used herein, refers to anypresentable information, and the term content item, as used herein,refers to any collection of any such presentable information. A contentprovider may, for example, provide one or more content providingservices for providing content to clients. The content providingservices may reside on one or more servers. The content providingservices may be scalable to meet the demands of one or more customersand may increase or decrease in capability based on the number and typeof incoming client requests. Portions of content providing services mayalso be migrated to be placed in positions of reduced latency withrequesting clients. For example, the content provider may determine an“edge” of a system or network associated with content providing servicesthat is physically and/or logically closest to a particular client. Thecontent provider may then, for example, “spin-up,” migrate resources orotherwise employ components associated with the determined edge forinteracting with the particular client. Such an edge determinationprocess may, in some cases, provide an efficient technique foridentifying and employing components that are well suited to interactwith a particular client, and may, in some embodiments, reduce thelatency for communications between a content provider and one or moreclients.

In addition, certain methods or process blocks may be omitted in someimplementations. The methods and processes described herein are also notlimited to any particular sequence, and the blocks or states relatingthereto can be performed in other sequences that are appropriate. Forexample, described blocks or states may be performed in an order otherthan that specifically disclosed, or multiple blocks or states may becombined in a single block or state. The example blocks or states may beperformed in serial, in parallel or in some other manner. Blocks orstates may be added to or removed from the disclosed exampleembodiments.

It will also be appreciated that various items are illustrated as beingstored in memory or on storage while being used, and that these items orportions thereof may be transferred between memory and other storagedevices for purposes of memory management and data integrity.Alternatively, in other embodiments some or all of the software modulesand/or systems may execute in memory on another device and communicatewith the illustrated computing systems via inter-computer communication.Furthermore, in some embodiments, some or all of the systems and/ormodules may be implemented or provided in other ways, such as at leastpartially in firmware and/or hardware, including, but not limited to,one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), standardintegrated circuits, controllers (e.g., by executing appropriateinstructions, and including microcontrollers and/or embeddedcontrollers), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), complexprogrammable logic devices (CPLDs), etc. Some or all of the modules,systems and data structures may also be stored (e.g., as softwareinstructions or structured data) on a computer-readable medium, such asa hard disk, a memory, a network or a portable media article to be readby an appropriate drive or via an appropriate connection. The systems,modules and data structures may also be transmitted as generated datasignals (e.g., as part of a carrier wave or other analog or digitalpropagated signal) on a variety of computer-readable transmission media,including wireless-based and wired/cable-based media, and may take avariety of forms (e.g., as part of a single or multiplexed analogsignal, or as multiple discrete digital packets or frames). Suchcomputer program products may also take other forms in otherembodiments. Accordingly, the present invention may be practiced withother computer system configurations.

Conditional language used herein, such as, among others, “can,” “could,”“might,” “may,” “e.g.” and the like, unless specifically statedotherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, isgenerally intended to convey that certain embodiments include, whileother embodiments do not include, certain features, elements, and/orsteps. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended toimply that features, elements and/or steps are in any way required forone or more embodiments or that one or more embodiments necessarilyinclude logic for deciding, with or without author input or prompting,whether these features, elements and/or steps are included or are to beperformed in any particular embodiment. The terms “comprising,”“including,” “having” and the like are synonymous and are usedinclusively, in an open-ended fashion, and do not exclude additionalelements, features, acts, operations and so forth. Also, the term “or”is used in its inclusive sense (and not in its exclusive sense) so thatwhen used, for example, to connect a list of elements, the term “or”means one, some or all of the elements in the list.

While certain example embodiments have been described, these embodimentshave been presented by way of example only and are not intended to limitthe scope of the inventions disclosed herein. Thus, nothing in theforegoing description is intended to imply that any particular feature,characteristic, step, module or block is necessary or indispensable.Indeed, the novel methods and systems described herein may be embodiedin a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions,substitutions and changes in the form of the methods and systemsdescribed herein may be made without departing from the spirit of theinventions disclosed herein. The accompanying claims and theirequivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as wouldfall within the scope and spirit of certain of the inventions disclosedherein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computing system for live streaming videocontent replacement comprising: one or more processors; and one or morememories having stored therein instructions that, upon execution by theone or more processors, cause the computing system perform operationscomprising: receiving information indicating one or more firstcharacteristics associated with a first video player; receivinginformation indicating one or more second characteristics associatedwith a second video player; transmitting, to the first video player,first instructions to play a first portion of first live streaming videocontent, followed by second streaming video content, followed by a thirdportion of the first live streaming video content, wherein the secondstreaming video content replaces a second portion of the first livestreaming video content, and wherein the second streaming video contentis selected for the first video player based, at least in part, on theone or more first characteristics; transmitting, to the first videoplayer, the first portion of first live streaming video content, thesecond streaming video content, and the third portion of the first livestreaming video content; transmitting, to the second video player,second instructions to play the first portion of the first livestreaming video content, followed by third streaming video content,followed by the third portion of the first live streaming video content,wherein the third streaming video content replaces the second portion ofthe first live streaming video content, and wherein the third streamingvideo content is selected for the second video player based, at least inpart, on the one or more second characteristics; and transmitting, tothe second video player, the first portion of first live streaming videocontent, the third streaming video content, and the third portion of thefirst live streaming video content.
 2. The computing system of claim 1,wherein the one or more first characteristics comprise at least one of aversion of the first video player, characteristics of a computer systemon which the first video player executes, or characteristics of a viewerthat operates the first video player.
 3. The computing system of claim1, wherein the second streaming video content is further selected based,at least in part, on one or more characteristics associated with thefirst streaming video content.
 4. The computing system of claim 3,wherein the one or more characteristics associated with the firststreaming video content comprise at least one of a channel on which thefirst streaming video content is transmitted, one or morecharacteristics of a provider of the first streaming video content, or amaturity rating for the first streaming video content.
 5. Acomputer-implemented method for live streaming video content replacementcomprising: receiving, by one or more computing devices, informationindicating one or more first characteristics associated with a firstvideo player; transmitting, by the one or more computing devices, to thefirst video player, first instructions to play a first portion of firstlive streaming video content, followed by second streaming videocontent, followed by a third portion of the first live streaming videocontent, wherein the second streaming video content replaces a secondportion of the first live streaming video content, and wherein thesecond streaming video content is selected for the first video playerbased, at least in part, on the one or more first characteristics; andtransmitting, by the one or more computing devices, to the first videoplayer, the first portion of first live streaming video content, thesecond streaming video content, and the third portion of the first livestreaming video content.
 6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5,further comprising: encoding, prior to selection of the second videocontent for the first video player, the second video content into aplurality of renditions having different respective image qualities; andstoring the plurality of renditions.
 7. The computer-implemented methodof claim 5, further comprising: receiving information indicating one ormore second characteristics associated with a second video player;transmitting, to the second video player, second instructions to playthe first portion of the first live streaming video content, followed bythird streaming video content, followed by the third portion of thefirst live streaming video content, wherein the third streaming videocontent replaces the second portion of the first live streaming videocontent, and wherein the third streaming video content is selected forthe second video player based, at least in part, on the one or moresecond characteristics; and transmitting, to the second video player,the first portion of first live streaming video content, the thirdstreaming video content, and the third portion of the first livestreaming video content.
 8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7,wherein at least one segment of video content is indicated in both thefirst instructions transmitted to the first video player and the secondinstructions transmitted to the second video player and is assigned adifferent segment name in the first instructions than the secondinstructions.
 9. The computer-implemented method of claim 7, furthercomprising: generating a master playlist that indicates the firstportion of the first live streaming video content, the second portion ofthe first live streaming video content, and the third portion of thefirst live streaming video content and that indicates that the secondportion is selected for replacement; and providing the master playlistto a service that requests, based at least in part on the masterplaylist, selection of the second streaming video content for the firstvideo player and selection of the third streaming video content for thesecond video player and that generates the first instructions and thesecond instructions.
 10. The computer-implemented method of claim 5,wherein the one or more first characteristics comprise at least one of aversion of the first video player, characteristics of a computer systemon which the first video player executes, or characteristics of a viewerthat operates the first video player.
 11. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 5, wherein the second streaming video content is furtherselected based, at least in part, on one or more characteristicsassociated with the first live streaming video content.
 12. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the one or morecharacteristics associated with the first live streaming video contentcomprise at least one of a channel on which the first live streamingvideo content is transmitted, one or more characteristics of a providerof the first live streaming video content, or a maturity rating for thefirst live streaming video content.
 13. The computer-implemented methodof claim 5, wherein the first instructions transmitted to the firstvideo player include at least one encrypted segment name.
 14. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the encrypted segmentname includes encrypted data that represents at least one ofcharacteristics of a request for an associated segment, characteristicsof an associated session, characteristics of an associated stream, or auniform resource identifier for the associated segment.
 15. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the encrypted segmentname is encrypted using symmetric key encryption and a Galois/CounterMode of Advanced Encryption Standard (GCM-AES) cipher.
 16. One or morenon-transitory computer-readable storage media having stored thereoninstructions that, upon execution by one or more computing devices,cause the one or more computing devices to perform operationscomprising: receiving, by the one or more computing devices, informationindicating one or more first characteristics associated with a firstvideo player; transmitting, by the one or more computing devices, to thefirst video player first instructions to play a first portion of firstlive streaming video content, followed by second streaming videocontent, followed by a third portion of the first live streaming videocontent, wherein the second streaming video content replaces a secondportion of the first live streaming video content, and wherein thesecond streaming video content is selected for the first video playerbased, at least in part, on the one or more first characteristics; andtransmitting, by the one or more computing devices, to the first videoplayer, the first portion of first live streaming video content, thesecond streaming video content, and the third portion of the first livestreaming video content.
 17. The one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable storage media of claim 16, wherein the operationsfurther comprise: receiving information indicating one or more secondcharacteristics associated with a second video player; transmitting, tothe second video player, second instructions to play the first portionof the first live streaming video content, followed by third streamingvideo content, followed by the third portion of the first live streamingvideo content, wherein the third streaming video content replaces thesecond portion of the first live streaming video content, and whereinthe third streaming video content is selected for the second videoplayer based, at least in part, on the one or more secondcharacteristics; and transmitting, to the second video player, the firstportion of first live streaming video content, the third streaming videocontent, and the third portion of the first live streaming videocontent.
 18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storagemedia of claim 16, wherein the one or more first characteristicscomprise at least one of a version of the first video player,characteristics of a computer system on which the first video playerexecutes, or characteristics of a viewer that operates the first videoplayer.
 19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storagemedia of claim 16, wherein the second streaming video content is furtherselected based, at least in part, on one or more characteristicsassociated with the first live streaming video content.